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Guest Opinions

Hunting, fishing and other forms of outdoor recreation are an important part of the culture, tradition and economy of Montana. A few months ago Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics released a study that shows that big game hunting, especially elk hunting, provides $4 million dollars of economic benefit to Fergus and Petroleum Counties. And that does not include bird hunting, fishing, or the numerous other types of outdoor recreation.

A small town’s unintended consequences One hundred acres are the beating heart of my South Dakota ranch. Century-old cottonwoods shelter pregnant cows through the winter, and it’s here that we harvest hay for the entire ranch and where my parents once planned to build their retirement home. But last January, 0.5 million gallons of wastewater spilled onto this land from a sewage lagoon owned by the nearby small town of Hermosa. The town’s public works director was casual about the dangers and hostile to my questions about the effects of the spill.

What do many state and national politicians have in common? Proposals to spend on infrastructure at a monumental scale. Hillary Clinton’s plan “would support about $500 billion in spending on infrastructure,” according to the New York Times. Donald Trump said he’d like to double Clinton’s amount. Bernie Sanders wanted to outspend Clinton, calling for “a $1 trillion investment over five years.”

If you look at national and international affairs and have concerns about security, economic and other issues, the only way to effect worldwide change, is to change yourself first. How can that be? How can changing me change the world?
Nothing changes without changing ourselves first. If we believe that our elected politicians are crooks and immoral, then our first line of lasting change is to change ourselves to be the leader we would want others to be.

It is important for Montana’s wildlife and our public lands to vote no on I-177, a sweeping and radical initiative that would outlaw trapping on all public lands in Montana.
Whether you are a trapper or not, a broad-brush ban like I-177 will create more problems for Montanans, our wildlife, and our public lands. The ban will be expensive, it will worsen conflicts among public land user groups, and it sets a terrible precedent. At a time when we should be coming together to protect our public lands, I-177 would push Montanans further apart.

While the race for the White House dominates this fall’s news, new findings about Social Security should concern Montana workers who are paying into Social Security today.

We have long known that Social Security is headed for a fiscal cliff unless our political leaders take action to make the program financially sound. But an analysis by AARP makes clear just how damaging the cuts would be for residents of Montana and all future retirees.

We now know the real reason country of origin labeling (COOL) was repealed was to help multinational meatpackers steal the good name and reputation of U.S. cattle producers and put it on beef from foreign-sourced cattle for duty-free distribution to Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement (TPP) countries, including the United States. They can do this because the TPP states the origin of beef is wherever the animal is slaughtered. Your reputation is worth billions of dollars, and our own USDA helped gift this incredibly valuable asset to the multinational meatpackers.

Few people would think twice if a friend told them they took a Vicodin, but if the same friend told you they’d been using heroin, you would likely be more alarmed. However, both are opioid drugs, both are highly addictive and one is a gateway drug to the other. Unfortunately, far too many Montanans will abuse prescription opioids, build a dangerous dependence on them and then start using heroin. This is a dangerous cycle with extremely serious consequences, not only to the addict but the entire community that surrounds them.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation strongly opposes Initiative 177, a measure on Montana’s November ballot that would immediately ban trapping on all public lands in the state. If passed it would severely cripple scientifically sound management practices that maintain healthy wildlife populations across Montana.

Trump is not a politician -- he does not fit with the career Democrat and Republican political colleagues with whom I have associated for 50 years, beginning as an active Democrat in a traditional Democrat Party family. I organized college Young Democrats, worked on elections of governors, senators and all presidential campaigns starting with the Kennedy campaign when Pam and I had breakfast with Ted Kennedy.